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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Nepal sees unprecedented rise in two-wheeler sales

Motor bikes are increasingly becoming popular among Nepalese people. Despite liquidity crunch and lack of loans from banks and financial institutions, sales of motorcycles increased significantly in the last ten months.

The Bagmati Zone Transport office registered a total of 58,732 motorbikes in the first ten months of the current fiscal year which is a 20.32% increase over last year’s figure of 48,811 motor bikes.

Madan Singh Mahat, Office in-charge and under secretary, Bagmati Zone Transport office, Motorcycle Unit, said, “We have been registering an average of 5,000 to 6,000 bikes each month,…Normally, this is not the season.”

He said that the reasons behind such increase are- attractive promotional schemes offered by motorcycle dealers, increasing disposable income and craze of motor cycle among country’s youth.

As banks are not providing any loans for buying motorcycles, dealers took matters into their own hands and launched various attractive schemes such as giving gifts and cash prizes for every purchase of motorbikes.

Increase in the number of registration also increased revenue collection. Within ten months of the current fiscal year, the Bagmati Zone Transport office already collected more than Rs.701 million against the annual collection of Rs. 147 million in the last fiscal year.

Despite increase in sales, Shekhar Golchha, director of the Golchha Organization, which sells Bajaj two-wheelers through its Hansraj Hulaschand subsidiary, said that sales of two-wheelers declined 20-25% in the last two months due to cash shortage in the market. The company offers a 21” television with every purchase of Bajaj bike.